Recycling Waste Soot from Merchant Ships to Produce Anode Materials for Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Batteries

In this study, the waste soot generated by ships was recycled to produce an active material for use in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Soot collected from a ship was graphitized by a heat treatment process and used as an anode active material. It was confirmed that the graphitized soot was converted into a highly crystalline graphite, and was found to form carbon nano-onions with an average diameter of 70 nm. The graphitized soot showed a high discharge capacity and an excellent cycle life, with a reversible capacity of 260 mAhg−1 even after 150 cycles at a rate of 1 C. This study demonstrates that the annealed soot with a unique graphitic multilayer structure has an electrochemical performance that renders it suitable as a candidate for the production of low-cost anode materials for use in LIBs.